Men who killed six in NY get life

NEW YORK, Nov. 29 -- Two Cuban nationals convicted of slaughtering six people inside a New York City apartment early this year were each sentenced Wednesday to 170 years in prison. Saul Angulo and Enrique Rodriguez went to the Queens apartment in January with plans to kill one of the victims who was demanding repayment of a $14,000 loan. They then shot, stabbed and strangled everyone inside the home. The lone survivor had her throat slit and was shot in the head, but managed to describe her attackers and the grisly murders for police by writing notes. She also testified at the trial. 'The massacre in College Point last January was one of the most horrendous crimes ever to have occurred in Queens County,' said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. 'Although nothing can bring back the victims or erase the emotional and physical scars of the survivor, it is reassuring to know that these defendants will never again see the light of day.' The massacre left five members of an extended family dead, as well as a teenage visitor to the apartment. Maria Lugo, a relative of victim Melinda Wynns, clutched a photo of the teenager and shouted at Angulo inside the courtroom. 'I wished him a Merry Christmas,' she told reporters. 'Every day he sleeps in jail he's going to remember these people.' Justice Thomas Demakos called the crime 'savagery at its worst' and said he would recommend that the pair never be eligible for parole.

The victims of the bloodbath were Maria Ramirez, 42; her daughters Carla Lopez, 15, and Paola Andrea Lopez, 17; Ramirez's live-in lover, Alex DeJesus, 29; DeJesus's cousin, Pablo Villanueva Calle Soto, 29; and Melinda Wynns, 16. According to testimony at the trial, Angulo and Rodriguez went to the apartment the night of Jan. 7 armed with a 9mm pistol equipped with a silencer to kill DeJesus, who was demanding repayment of the loan. DeJesus was not home when the gunmen arrived, so they ordered the women into other rooms and waited for their main target. When DeJesus and Calle-Soto came home, they were each fatally shot several times. The killer then tied up the women and girls and shot and stabbed them to death. They shot the survivor in the head and slit her throat, leaving her for dead. But she leaped off a terrace, alerted a neighbor and described the massacre to police.